


this is not a temporary love

by micksgotkicks



Series: five times my writing was better than the magicians [1]
Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, and they just need to hold each other for a long time tbh, cuz these boys are dumb and super in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 01:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18297479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/micksgotkicks/pseuds/micksgotkicks
Summary: Eliot wakes up in the Brakebills Infirmary with Julia by his side.





	this is not a temporary love

**Author's Note:**

> part one of my queliot reunion series. title and lyrics from temporary love by ben platt.

_when the world around is caving in  
and the winds, they keep on changing_

~

“Eliot!”

He hears a chorus of voices, or maybe just one distorted voice, calling his name as he’s ripped from the darkness. Everything is sharp and the back of Eliot’s head stings.

He blinks his eyes open, squinting at the bright light until Julia’s face becomes clear above it. “Eliot?”

He knows he’s at Brakebills, surprisingly enough, and it feels like it’s been years. Maybe it has been. 

He’s on a familiar bed in the infirmary, his head dizzy after being trapped in his mind for so long. The bruises and sores that litter his body feel like echoes left for someone else, barely his own. As he clenches his hands, his knuckles crack and send sharp pains up and down his arm. 

“Did it work?” This comes from Penny, or Penny-From-Another-Timeline, he’s not really sure how long he’s been gone for. 

“Eliot?” Julia has a hand on his chest, staring at him intently. “Is that you?”

Eliot opens his mouth, but his tongue feels too heavy and awkward. He snaps his lips shut and nods numbly. Suddenly becoming hyperaware of how dry his throat is— _had that fucking monster not known what water was?—_ he grapples with the glass left on the table by his bed. Julia presses it into his hand before he can knock it over with his fumbling.

 _Quentin? Where is he? Is he alive? Can I see him?_ Eliot’s mind is whirling at a mile a minute. “Q?” It’s all he can get out. Penny and Julia share a look and, _oh,_ that’s new and something he definitely missed, but for another time.

Relief floods through Eliot when he hears that familiar voice, muffled by the walls and extra wards surrounding the infirmary.

“Stop it, I need to see him.”

“Q, don’t, we’re not sure if that’s even—“

The door swings open, Quentin rushing in with Alice in tow.

He stops dead in his tracks when he sees Eliot.

Julia is on her feet right away, dragging Penny or maybe Other Penny with her. 

She whispers to the only healer in the room, probably a first year from the looks of him. “Could we give them the room for a minute?” 

The healer nods, leading Penny and Julia out the door and down the hallway. He catches an unreadable glance from Julia before she disappears behind the frosted window.

Quentin’s still staring at him, not moving. He looks different, Eliot thinks, now that he’s got a chance to really look at him for more than a few seconds in a not-so-life-or-death situation.

His hair is shorter and his skin a little tanner. His gaze is firm but his eyes are looking at Eliot earnestly in that way he’s grown so fond of over the years. He looks different, yes, but he’s still Q.

“Quentin.”

Alice says it before Eliot can, and he’d forgotten she was still here.

She takes Quentin’s hand and Eliot’s stomach plummets. He’s too late, Quentin’s moved on and gone back to Alice. It’s such an awful thought, if his friend is happy what does it matter? But the only thing running through his steadily clearing mind is a mantra of _if only if only if only._

Quentin tears his eyes away from Eliot for the first time since he walked in. He pulls his hand from Alice’s, not forcefully, but it makes Eliot more hopeful than it really ought to.

“Thank you.” Quentin nods at her, touching her shoulder very briefly before dropping his hand back to his side.

“Will you, uh, check on Julia?” he asks. He runs his palms along his jeans and Eliot can’t help but grin. He’s still the same old Quentin, really. Even after everything.

Alice nods curtly, turning on her heal and walking out the door with the same grace as a headmaster of a fancy prep boarding school.

Then it’s just the two of them, staring at one another like it’s all a dream. If it is, Eliot doesn’t want to wake up.

“El,” Quentin finally says, his voice cracking. His composure is gone as he breaks the stifling silence in the room with a sob. 

Eliot sits up in the bed, meeting Quentin sort of halfway as they wrap their arms around each other. 

“Q.” Eliot’s voice is barely above a whisper as he runs his fingers through Quentin’s hair, presses his nose into his shoulder and breathes in the smell that is so undeniably _Q._

Eliot can feel Quentin bury his face into his chest, gripping his arms like a lifeline. “I’m so sorry it..it took so long.”

Eliot jerks back so he can stare at him. “Don’t you dare. This is not your fault.” Of course Quentin of all people would find a way to blame himself.

He doesn’t reply, just stares at him with his face wet from the tears and that kicked puppy look Eliot has missed so fucking much.

“I love you,” Eliot says, and alright, sure, he’d wanted to do it with more pizazz, more _Eliot._ He didn’t need to though, not with Quentin wrapped around him, safe and warm.

Quentin’s eyes widen. “You...you can’t just say that.”

Eliot frowns. “Why not?”

“You’re not...I don’t want you to feel like...loving me shouldn’t be an obligation to you.”

“It’s really not.”

Quentin licks his lips, looking fidgety and nervous. “You don’t have to say that.”

“I do.” Eliot slides a hand along his neck, gently, soothingly. “Because it’s true.”

He cups Quentin’s face, as he’d done in his memories, and tugs him in. The kiss is soft, longing, a culmination of living a whole life together in one timeline and missing each other in another. 

Quentin seems to melt in his grip, eyes fluttering closed and hands tugging at Eliot’s shirt. It’s so much better than anything his mind could have come up with. It’s real.

It feels like days and weeks and seconds when Eliot finally pulls back. His hands have found their way back into Quentin’s hair, just as soft as it had been all those years they were together.

“I should never have turned you down,” Eliot says, determined not to fuck up what he has with this beautiful boy in front of him, practically sitting in his lap.

“Eliot.“

“I was scared, afraid that I didn’t deserve someone as good as you.”

Quentin rolls his eyes. “I’m not—“

Eliot touches his cheek again. “You are. But I’d love you even if you weren’t.”

Quentin flushes, just a little, and his eyes dart down to where his hands are fiddling with the fabric of Eliot’s jacket. 

“I get if I'm too late"—Eliot swallows in an attempt to keep his voice steady—"if you’re back with Alice, but I needed you to know.”

Quentin’s gaze snaps back up. “You’re fucking kidding me.”

It’s Eliot’s turn to look away sheepishly. “I thought—“

Quentin kisses him again, this one more urgent and desperate. 

“I love you,” he says, when they break apart. “And I won’t lose you again. I can’t.”

Eliot’s got a soppy smile on his face, he’s sure. His chest feels warm and full for the first time in a long time. 

Eliot pulls him into another embrace, pressing a kiss to his forehead. Quentin relaxes into his hold naturally, like he’s made to be there. 

“You won’t have to,” Eliot murmurs, and he means it. There’s nothing in this world he would let keep him away from Quentin, not now.

They stay like that until Quentin dozes off, no doubt exhausted after dealing with the Monster for so long. Eliot wonders if he got a decent night’s sleep at all since the whole thing began.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees Julia looking through the door to the infirmary. She’s got a hint of a smile playing on her lips and Eliot will have to remember to thank her for taking care of Quentin through everything.

Right now though, he leans back in the bed and falls asleep tangled with a man he’s desperately in love with.

~

_take my hand and let it spin  
we'll hold still_

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on tumblr at [lovelyquentin](https://lovelyquentin.tumblr.com/) if you have any queliot reunion prompts you want me to write because i am a romantic hoe above all.


End file.
